It’s the ad campaign everybody’s talking about – and apparently loves to hate: those commercials for the Palm Pre smartphone. Centered on a serene woman who directly addresses the audience in an oddly detached monologue musing on such topics as jugglers and reincarnation, the commercials have done a better job of calling attention to themselves (and actress Tamara Hope) than of branding the phone itself.

Without resorting to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s now oft-repeated reference to newly emerging greenery to describe the beginning signs of economic recovery, there are indications that business is getting back to business. The Dow Jones Industrial average surged 8.6 percent for the month of July – making it the best July since 2002 – while Google reported second-quarter spending up on Google AdWords over the second-quarter of 2008.

“Go ahead and be a corporate conformist and shop at Banana Republic.” – The Goth Kids, South Park

Yeah, go ahead – because AMC’s hit series, Mad Men, has made corporate conformity glamorous and hot. And Banana Republic, in a stroke of marketing genius, has joined forces with Mad Men to bring retro chic to a clothing and accessories collection based on the sharp style of the series’ characters.

I spent most of yesterday in a marketing summit. The event was almost nine straight hours of marketing professionals and brand managers discussing the importance of a brand, the overall brand experience and how brand strength is built.

There are those who loudly claim that social media is just a fad. Who’s saying this? Mainly old-school corporate types who wish things would go back to the way they were before everybody with a cell phone and an Internet connection could post embarrassing pictures and videos of their product’s epic fails for all the world to see, mere minutes after they occur.

But there is no going back. No going back to top-down communication, secrecy and the control that a company has over the information that gets out about it. Businesses with a hierarchical culture need to adapt or die – or at the very least, expect to lose a significant amount of market share to nimble competitors who embrace the new rules.